Author: Robert Greenberger

Stephen King was on a roll when Pet Sematary came out in 1983, with each horror novel seemingly creepier than the last. After all, everyone loves a loyal pet, and many families can recount how they commemorated an animal/fish/bird’s life at death. Turn that domestic normality on its head and you can terrify most everyone. King admitted this was perhaps his most disturbing work, the one where he may have gone too far (which is saying a lot).

The 1989 film adaptation starred Fred Gwynne, Dale Midkiff, and Denise Crosby and did a fairly good job capturing the spirit of the novel. It performed well enough that it spawned a best-forgotten sequel.

And as with all things, it was been remade this spring and is out now on disc from Paramount Home Entertainment.  

The premise remains the same: the Creeds have moved into a rural home near the local Pet Sematary. No sooner do they settle in than their cat is killed and therefore becomes the latest resident of the graveyard but then things get weird.

Adapted by horror film writer Matt Greenberg, it was polished by Jeff Buhler (David Kajganich went uncredited) and then directed by the duo of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, the movie performed well at the box office but I, like so many others, question “was this a necessary remake?”

The cast of Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz, Jeté Laurence, Maria Herrera, and Sonia Maria Chirila are all good in their roles but the entire production has been a read this, seen that already feel and despite trying to explore some new aspects of the town and sematary, it just never rises to the feeling of freshness. The first film did a more faithful job adapting the novel and here they try to go deeper into the mythology of the land but isn’t enough. The more gruesome visuals and thrills also fail to overcome the ho-humness of it.

The film was released in the usual assortment of formats including the $K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital HD combo pack. The 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD is only a slight improvement over the Blu-ray, despite being shot at resolutions of 2.8K and 3.4K and finished at 2K. Yes, the image is sharper overall, especially important when offering an atmospheric film with creepy shadows, lots of night scenes, and shapes that go bump in the night. Colors, notably within the Creed house, do pop nicely. The exteriors build on soundstages are brought into sharper relief here which does spoil the overall feel the producers were hoping for.

The film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack works quite nicely, well matching the atmospheric feel of the film. The sound effects are sharp and do add a nice feel to the experience.

The Special Features are found on the Blu-ray and contain an Alternate Ending (9:16), followed by Deleted and Extended Scenes (16:09); Night Terrors (4:57); The Tale of Timmy Baterman (3:04); Beyond the Deadfall: Chapter One: Resurrection (16:54), Chapter Two: The Final Resting Place (12:38), Chapter Three: The Road to Sorrow (13:59), and Chapter Four: Death Comes Home (18:07). These are all moderately entertaining and informative but nothing out of the ordinary, much like the film being supported.

On September 18, 1964, a serious animated adventure series, demonstrating cartoons didn’t have to always be comical such as The Flintstones (still airing then on ABC). Instead, Jonny Quest captured the sense of exploration Americans were longing for thanks to the Mercury astronauts and the rising tide of espionage films, headed by James Bond. However, Jonny was a young boy, making him an ideal feature for the Friday at 7:30 p.m. slot.

While the 26 episodes are all that were produced, the show’s overall quality proved influential to subsequent generations of animators, comic book storytellers, and audiences. It has pretty much remained in syndication for the last forty years.  Jonny Quest remained the benchmark for dramatic animated fare for decades, enjoying brief runs as a comic book (notably Comico’s 1980s run).

The series has been collected and polished to a brilliant shine on a just-released Jonny Quest: The Complete Series Blu-ray from Warner Archives, where it will be celebrated in San Diego later this month.

The credit for the Hanna-Barbera series starts with Doug Wildey, who was asked to adapt the radio serial Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy for a cartoon series. Instead, Wildey threw himself into research and so thoroughly updated the concepts and cast that it was something entirely new.

Jonny (voiced by young Tim Matheson) is an 11-year-old homeschooled boy, who accompanies his father, the brilliant Dr. Benton C. Quest (John Stephenson/Don Messick), who is sent by the USA government on various expeditions. They are accompanied by Race Bannon (Mike Road), an agent from Intelligence One, designated as Jonny’s tutor and bodyguard, and Hadji (Danny Bravo), a Kolkata orphan adopted by Dr. Quest. With their dog Bandit, they circle the globe getting in and out of danger with regularity. The stories are imaginative and varied, giving the series its lasting appeal with heavy doses of technological plausibility plus pterodactyls.

There were several recurring characters, notably Race’s old girlfriend, Jade (Cathy Lewis), a mystery never fully solved.

The superior animation lavished on this, compared with most of Hanna-Barbera’s output from the era, looks great here with the traditional 1.33:1 aspect ratio. These files were cleaned up so the colors and heavy black line work is crisp, the colors popping and shadows properly murky.

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix nicely preserves the one-channel original audio and works just fine with the beautiful visuals. Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols’ theme and music have never sounded better.

The special features from the 2004 DVD release are carried over here, including The Jonny Quest Files: Fun, Facts & Trivia (25:19), Jonny Quest: Adventures in Animation (15:15), complete with comments from Brad Bird, Steve Rude, Dan Riba, and Alex Ross; The Jonny Quest Video Handbook (16:57), and P.F. Flyer Sneaker Commercial (1:00).

If younger people today know Popeye at all, it’s probably his connection with spinach. The brilliance of the animated cartoons from the 1940s is forgotten as is his Can-Do personality and rich supporting cast. A while back, the classic black and white cartoons were being collected as a three volume DVD so it is most welcome that Warner Archives is releasing the color ones using restored and remastered in HD 4K scans of the original nitrate Technicolor negatives for Blu-ray where we can appreciate the detail.

Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s Volume 1 came out last December and now we have Volume 2 with 15 more in chronological order on a reasonably priced disc ($17.97 if you look around). There were released in 1946 and 1947 just after World War II so the content reflects that euphoria and forward-looking approach.

These are a fanciful collection with adventures under the sea, on Mars, out west, and in darkest Africa.

The cartoons lack the imagination and brilliance of the earlier Fleischer Studios, but the renamed Famous Studios still offered up some of the finest animation of the era thanks to the efforts of director Jim Tyer and director Bill Tytla who worked on the majority of these offerings. Veteran director Seymour Kneitel and writers Jack Ward, Carl Meyer, Otto Messmer, and Woody Gelman also well represented here.

We open with “House Tricks?”, which is the first to feature Popeye on the title card and is a remake of the earlier “The House Builder-Upper”. Harry Foster Welch does Popeye’s voice the first few toons before Jack Mercer arrives and takes over with “I’ll be Skiing Ya”. You will watch styles change, notably Olive Oyl, but the antics remain fresh and engaging.

“The Fistic Mystic”, “Wotta Knight”, and “The Island Fling” both feature Black stereotypes that have been edited or not aired on television and are here for inclusiveness. Look for a Herman the Mouse cameo in the latter one. Similarly, there was a moment in “Popeye and the Pirates” where he changed into drag with a glimpse of nudity that screened in 1947 but was snipped for airing and is thought lost, so remains missing here.

The loving restoration from the negatives means we’re seeing crisp, clear version with brilliant colors, a superior collection compared with the first volume. The cleaning also means we’re treated to a superior sound track without the artifacts and hissing that mar broadcast versions.

There are no special features, but I can live with that given the overall quality.

For the record, the titles include are:

“House Tricks?”

“Service with a Guile”

“Klondike Casanova”

“Peep in the Deep”

“Rocket to Mars”

“Rodeo Romeo”

“The Fistic Mystic”

“The Island Fling”

“Abusement Park”

“I’ll Be Skiing Ya”

“Popeye and the Pirates”

“The Royal-Four Flusher”

“Wotta Knight”

“Safari So Good”

“All’s Fair at the Fair”

I was captivated by Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, Get Out, until it devolved into over-the-top horror film fare, spoiling the social commentary. Apparently, I was not alone in this and Peele decided his sophomore outing would be a straight on horror film, Us. When it opened, my students flocked to see it, many enjoying it, and several saying they needed to see it twice to fully appreciate it.

The film, from Universal Home Entertainment, is out on home video tomorrow, and I have to say, I don’t get the fuss. Once again, Peele layers in social commentary mixed with his horror tropes (a modern-day Body Snatchers?), but I was fairly bored for the majority of the film.

In short, your perfect nuclear family, headed by Lupita Nyong’o (in a part Peele wrote just for her) and Winston Duke, has their lives turned upside down when their home is invaded by red-tracksuited doppelgangers. We eventually learn that they are not alone and the local town is overrun with these silent, deadly clones.

It becomes a race for survival although there appears to be something personal between Nyong’o and her double, who she first saw in 1986. She (Madison Curry) was so traumatized, she fell silent for years, and today is uncomfortable in crowds and easily spooked. There’s also some odd connection between her son Jason (Evan Alex) and his double.

As in all good horror films, people make stupid decisions so at various points when the family could escape to safety, they chose the less obvious path, extending the threat.

As we learn, these are imperfect clones, dubbed the tethered, developed and raised by the government in some harebrained scheme to control the masses. Why they were allowed to remain alive is never addressed. Nor is there a hint of government response to any of this. Similarly, and in keeping in the horror tradition, our heroes appear to be the only ones to have survived their deadly encounter. In fact, there are lot so internal logic questions left dangling.

The cast is appealing as Duke and Nyong’o play parents nicely and it’s good to see Elizabeth Moss in something other than a red robe but I wonder why she took the role since there’s absolutely nothing to work with. She’s just the highest profile cannon fodder in the cast.

Apparently, people smarter than me have plumbed the film’s deeper meanings and what Peele is trying to say about ourselves, our psychological states, but nothing about why a republican wants to control its citizens. I think people want to see more in this movie than is really there. And then Peele pulls the rug out from under us with a reveal at the end that raises plenty of unanswered questions, but by then, I was done.

The movie is out in the usual assortment of formats including the $K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and Digital HD combo pack. The film works very well in 4K as the 2160p digital transfer allows the deep shadows and figures running in the dark to look clear. The Dolby Vision color palette lets the limited color palette work just fine. Coupled with a fine Dolby Atmos sound track, the film will play nicely at home, spooking its audience.

The Blu-ray, by the way, is nearly as good so if you just get that, you’re fine.

The Special Features included don’t reveal as much as one would have hoped and are a fairly average assortment. We begin with The Monsters Within Us (4:45), examining the main family; Tethered Together: Making Us Twice (7:29, which touches on how the cast played two versions of themselves, aided by the crew; Redefining a Genre: Jordan Peele’s Brand of Horror (5:31), although I question if anything actually got redefined; The Duality of Us ( 9:56), with Peele admitting he’s scared of his own double; Becoming Red (4:09), shows Nyong’o getting into character; Scene Explorations – Seven Second Massacre (2:41), It’s a Trap (2:02), and I Just Want My Little Girl Back (2:53); Deleted Scenes (6:28); We’re All Dying (6:22), an extended beach scene; and, As Above, So Below: Grand Pas De Deux (5:02): Zora dances.

Surprising to some, Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have some commonalities. After all, the half-shell heroes were initially created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a parody of Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, before coming to DC and turning his talents to The Dark Knight. Both properties work best in the shadows and had the producers of this animated adventure leaned into that, this could have been a cut above an obvious cash grab.

The participants have met before, in three miniseries from DC Comics and IDW in addition to one strictly set in their “Adventures” incarnations, aimed more at all-ages readers. Now, we have Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a briskly paced story. It’s not bad, but boy, it could have been so much more had anyone made an effort.

The versus portion of the story is the most obvious bit of fan service since time immemorial has required crossovers to begin with a fight before a partnership can begin.  The Foot Clan arrives in Gotham City for nefarious purposes and gets discovered by Batgirl (Rachel Bloom) just before Leonardo (Eric Bauza), Donatello (Baron Vaughn), Raphael (Darren Criss), and Michelangelo (Kyle Mooney) arrive. As usual, they are on the trail of Shredder (Andrew Kishino) and the next target is, of course Wayne Enterprises. Enter: Batman (Troy Baker) and Robin (Ben Giroux). Mix, repeat.

And if the usual felons arrive for one team, surely we must have equal villains for the other so toss in The Penguin (Tom Kenny), Mr. Freeze John DiMaggio), Two-Face (Keith Ferguson), Ra’s al Ghul (Cas Anvar), Scarecrow (Jim Meskimen0, and of course, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn (both Tara Strong).  All of these are underutilized which is s shame since the turtles versus the rogues could have been as interesting as watching the Caped Crusader face off against Shredder.

This works when your young viewer knows both properties because introductions and backgrounds are the least concern to writer Marly Halpern-Graser and director Jake Castorena. Instead, it’s to keep things upbeat and moving for 84 colorful minutes. One thing rising above the sameness is Kevin Riepl’s score.

The film is out in a variety of formats including the 4k Ultra HD/Blu-ray/ Digital HD combo pack, which was reviewed. The 2160p transfer works best with the colors and is acceptable all around, just not stunning. The Blu-ray actually might work a little better for overall balance. The audio is more than up to the task, just not in a noteworthy way.

In keeping with the same old feel of the main feature, the special features continue that with perfunctory features starting with Cowabunga Batman! When Comic Book Worlds Collide (12:31), Fight Night in Gotham (18:06); and A Sneak Peek at Batman: Hush (9:18). That’s it no extra cartoons from either property or anything about their comic book meetings, which is a shame.